Thread: Banners Broker HYIP ponzi scam

Hi all, new here hoping to provide some insights and learn who I can trust!

I joined Banners Broker a while back investing a small amount under pressure from a friend. But I'm glad I never touched it since because alarm bells went off when I read the technical excuses

I am an experienced web developer and also educated to a post graduate level in that field. The excuses they have given are anything but valid.

A denial of service attack against BB can't be mitigated by changing hosts. In fact, if a website is targeted the only real way is to make the cost of the attack greater or equal to the cost of being attacked. Anyway the attackers can simply find the new IP address ... we all know the domain name after all. That's all they really need to launch a Denial of Service attack. It was likely down because of server overload on their old shared hosting account.

The migration, like another user mentioned, is seamless these days. In fact, all they really need to do is to change the config file. After all they are using PHP and MYSQL. I know because they slipped up – I even discovered the framework they are using. At present they are doing there best to mask the framework thus it is possible they are having trouble as there is a lot of hard coding to hide. Although it is hard to verify, they had one major slip up and semantically the code is similar, just with changes to path names and default names. I'll keep everybody posted on the source code.

Another thing. Why would they cache people's panel pages? I know server caching helps the load but with 300, 000 affiliates you'd be caching individual tailored pages (eg. I have 10 yellow panels and Joe has 5 yellow panels). It defies logic. But if they are trying to cover their tracks, as I said before, they might be taking time to figure out how this framework works. Had they their own propriety system and dedicated I.T. Team this would not be a problem.

On that note, where is the engine hosted anyway? If the engine didn't move when the site was down, something tells me there's no need to reconnect them to work in harmony because they already exist on the same platform. I don't see any network traffic being exchanged other than google analytics and their own and yet panels are moving when they feel like it. Must be internal.

Or push button. I read somewhere from one of BB's biggest fans that panels rollup if you visit after not visiting for a while. What that means is that the so-called engine is triggered by people. Here is a quote from the classroom:

“The way it was working is that every time you go to the yellow view panel page, for example, your older yellows rollup, 3 at a time, each time you hit the page or refresh it”

What? Not even a cronjob!

And why do we have to wait 5mins for our banners to appear after upload? What are we waiting for? The time is already taken in the upload process. Why do we have to manually upload our BB banners that we have to advertise in the first place? Surely this could be automated. The default banners are already on the site.

I thought Chris Smith was both a mathematical and I.T. genius...

But then again, the target demographic are the less savvy, more vulnerable and older generation of people. It comes as no surprise that the new challenges are fairly tricky for this demographic. One lady I spoke to in her 70s was asking me how on earth was she going to blog as her final option. She knows nothing about it. Another did a blog and didn't even get enough to qualify a yellow!

But perhaps the biggest concern I have is identity theft. Why are we being asked so many security questions and being requested to hand in notarised forms along with consent to withdraw from our bank and our bank details? This information will come in handy when they can't voluntarily get your money.

Basic computer security states that you should only have as much access as required. Why do they need this overkill of information.

Just my two cents worth...

Originally Posted by markh

Hi all, new here hoping to provide some insights and learn who I can trust!

I joined Banners Broker a while back investing a small amount under pressure from a friend. But I'm glad I never touched it since because alarm bells went off when I read the technical excuses

I am an experienced web developer and also educated to a post graduate level in that field. The excuses they have given are anything but valid.

A denial of service attack against BB can't be mitigated by changing hosts. In fact, if a website is targeted the only real way is to make the cost of the attack greater or equal to the cost of being attacked. Anyway the attackers can simply find the new IP address ... we all know the domain name after all. That's all they really need to launch a Denial of Service attack. It was likely down because of server overload on their old shared hosting account.

The migration, like another user mentioned, is seamless these days. In fact, all they really need to do is to change the config file. After all they are using PHP and MYSQL. I know because they slipped up – I even discovered the framework they are using. At present they are doing there best to mask the framework thus it is possible they are having trouble as there is a lot of hard coding to hide. Although it is hard to verify, they had one major slip up and semantically the code is similar, just with changes to path names and default names. I'll keep everybody posted on the source code.

Another thing. Why would they cache people's panel pages? I know server caching helps the load but with 300, 000 affiliates you'd be caching individual tailored pages (eg. I have 10 yellow panels and Joe has 5 yellow panels). It defies logic. But if they are trying to cover their tracks, as I said before, they might be taking time to figure out how this framework works. Had they their own propriety system and dedicated I.T. Team this would not be a problem.

On that note, where is the engine hosted anyway? If the engine didn't move when the site was down, something tells me there's no need to reconnect them to work in harmony because they already exist on the same platform. I don't see any network traffic being exchanged other than google analytics and their own and yet panels are moving when they feel like it. Must be internal.

Or push button. I read somewhere from one of BB's biggest fans that panels rollup if you visit after not visiting for a while. What that means is that the so-called engine is triggered by people. Here is a quote from the classroom:

“The way it was working is that every time you go to the yellow view panel page, for example, your older yellows rollup, 3 at a time, each time you hit the page or refresh it”

What? Not even a cronjob!

And why do we have to wait 5mins for our banners to appear after upload? What are we waiting for? The time is already taken in the upload process. Why do we have to manually upload our BB banners that we have to advertise in the first place? Surely this could be automated. The default banners are already on the site.

I thought Chris Smith was both a mathematical and I.T. genius...

But then again, the target demographic are the less savvy, more vulnerable and older generation of people. It comes as no surprise that the new challenges are fairly tricky for this demographic. One lady I spoke to in her 70s was asking me how on earth was she going to blog as her final option. She knows nothing about it. Another did a blog and didn't even get enough to qualify a yellow!

But perhaps the biggest concern I have is identity theft. Why are we being asked so many security questions and being requested to hand in notarised forms along with consent to withdraw from our bank and our bank details? This information will come in handy when they can't voluntarily get your money.

Basic computer security states that you should only have as much access as required. Why do they need this overkill of information.

Just my two cents worth...

markh:

I took the liberty of posting your remarks at MMG in the BB thread, and I'm afraid it wasn't well received. One poster replied, and I quote:

"Rubbish."

Another self-professed guru said this, and again I quote:

"This has to be the worst post I have seen in my life. It is so full of misconceptions about things you obviously do not know.
"Shared server" I would love to see any website run on a shared server with millions of pageviews. I don't care what the business is.
I have spent almost a month tweaking my own server as I keep getting errors since I migrated. Do you have any clue about server configurations testing and everything that is involved including operating systems. Different versions different types of cache. Different types of everything. Even different types of hardware. What works great on one not always works great on another. Many IT departments do the same thing if its not broke you do not fix it this includes upgrades. It is common practice. You only fix what is broken. It keeps your job secure.

I could not care less about the site you were discussing but this post is written by a person that has never dealt with any server. What was the latest and greatest last year is old and outdated today. If anyone makes assumptions about anything please put up facts not dribble. I like to read these things for a laugh but now you made me register just so I can respond.

As for the 70 year old who cant blog. If she can manage her account she can manage to blog. You have and you dont know jack. Blogging is about writing stuff people will read. Like this forum. I come here to read. If she has not mastered the art of basic writing skills by now please stick a fork in her shes done."

Now understand, this poster could not differentiate between my intro of your post and your post. I also doubt this poster has a clue about techie things, but is just a BB Kool-Aid drinker. But feel free to come and join the fun at MMG in the BB thread. You can join us here: Banners Broker - bannersbroker.com

Originally Posted by EagleOne

markh:

I took the liberty of posting your remarks at MMG in the BB thread, and I'm afraid it wasn't well received. One poster replied, and I quote:

"Rubbish."

Another self-professed guru said this, and again I quote:

"This has to be the worst post I have seen in my life. It is so full of misconceptions about things you obviously do not know.
"Shared server" I would love to see any website run on a shared server with millions of pageviews. I don't care what the business is.
I have spent almost a month tweaking my own server as I keep getting errors since I migrated. Do you have any clue about server configurations testing and everything that is involved including operating systems. Different versions different types of cache. Different types of everything. Even different types of hardware. What works great on one not always works great on another. Many IT departments do the same thing if its not broke you do not fix it this includes upgrades. It is common practice. You only fix what is broken. It keeps your job secure.

I could not care less about the site you were discussing but this post is written by a person that has never dealt with any server. What was the latest and greatest last year is old and outdated today. If anyone makes assumptions about anything please put up facts not dribble. I like to read these things for a laugh but now you made me register just so I can respond.

As for the 70 year old who cant blog. If she can manage her account she can manage to blog. You have and you dont know jack. Blogging is about writing stuff people will read. Like this forum. I come here to read. If she has not mastered the art of basic writing skills by now please stick a fork in her shes done."

Now understand, this poster could not differentiate between my intro of your post and your post. I also doubt this poster has a clue about techie things, but is just a BB Kool-Aid drinker. But feel free to come and join the fun at MMG in the BB thread. You can join us here: Banners Broker - bannersbroker.com

Thanks for the update, EagleOne. I expect some opposition, it is only normal especially when people are panicking about their investment. Firstly I apologise for the confusion but what I am referring to is a very specific scenario.

Firstly, I'm not going to discredit anybody's professional opinion (as they has mine) and I'm not that stupid as to think a shared environment could be the current hosting platform it is today for Banner's Broker. With hundreds of thousands of affiliates anxiously checking their panels daily. It was with part sarcasm that I mentioned the older origingal servers were shared or VPS. Though it wouldn't surprise me if they started there. After all, they are always on the move but I'll save that information for later.

I also gave the benefit of the doubt to BB saying that load on the older server could have been an issue but others argue it was deliberate downtime. Let's assume they could handle the load as any big company should, and they did migrate to another host. Wouldn't they have some more testing and had some serious analysis prior. Or were they suddenly thrown off the old server for some reason?

Secondly, this quoted guy said he doesn't care for the site (ie bannersbroker either way). Were that the case, why did it hit such a nerve? If he felt I was wrong, maybe he should have given me some 'guidance' or 'suggestions' / specific examples rather than attack the post by saying "different types of everything"; how can I resond to something as abstract as that. And the poor lady he crucified for not being able to blog ... doesn't sound impartial to me. Sounds like a call to arms for BB.

I was very specific with the scenario. I am almost certain of the framework they are using and the server side technology behind it. I also responded directly to the excuses given by Banners Broker themselves. For example, they mentioned server side caching being the cause for panels appearing not to be moving. Maybe he should give his interpretation of the possible caching problem being an issue in that regards. I would have appreciated that from a 'neutral bystander' more than say "there are many types of cache".

Finally, I do understand there can be issues with migration particularly if you are changing versions of software and architectures etc. I apologise if this came out the wrong way and offended some developers. However, all variables being the same, BB is just moving servers because they were unhappy with their former host. After all, why fix what ain't broken, right? On that note, the problems they are blaming the configuration teething seem to be more on the programming level. Plus this fueled me to invest some of my own money investing into this and I found that there has been other migrations.

I'll be as fair as I can be and say they are programming v3.0 of Banners Broker. I'll try and be nice and say they are making changes on the live server as the affiliates were told. God knows I wouldn't want to make changes to a live server while people are using it for monetary stuff but still for arguments sake let's give them that benefit. And let's assume that I am totally wrong and a nutcase and BB is telling the truth...

...then why am I being told to send snail mail to an Energy Specialist Warehouse in Canada? They lost my trust long ago.